


Regulus/Kreacher: At The Cave

by salazar_kat



Series: Background fics to 'Snacks and Letters' [17]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Dark, Gen, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-04
Updated: 2011-07-04
Packaged: 2017-10-21 00:40:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/219016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salazar_kat/pseuds/salazar_kat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The ultimate in family honour; in which Regulus dies to save those he loves, and the house elf, for a reason.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Regulus/Kreacher: At The Cave

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Snacks and Letters](https://archiveofourown.org/works/216898) by [salazar_kat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/salazar_kat/pseuds/salazar_kat), [Sionna_Raven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sionna_Raven/pseuds/Sionna_Raven). 



I had to do it tonight. The Dark Lord was less than he had seemed, and more dangerous. No idea of house elves. Oh, no, Kreacher was far below him, I thought. I knocked on Kreacher's cupboard door. The house was nearly silent, but for the ticking of the grandfather clock and the creak of the trees in the summer wind. The soft knocking caused Kreacher to open the door at once.

“Yes, Master Regulus?” he croaked. I noticed that his heels were white and cracked. He needed care. I had a hard time stuffing my emotions down at the thought of what he told me two days ago. It took two days to make a decision to go against almost everything I'd believed in for the past year and a half, longer if I'm honest.

It took that long because I had to find a locket similar to the one Kreacher described. It didn't matter that much that they were identical, but I wanted one and to add a note the Dark Lord, with my initials, the final insult that be be outwitted by a house elf and a low-ranking teenager.

Ha.

I took from my pocket the locket so like the one the Dark Lord had. Kreacher trembled, and said, “Is Master asking a question?” he shook as he asked me.

“You are a good house elf. No one is going to harm you for what you do for me tonight. You help the youngest of the Blacks, and like I said, tell no one else in the family, especially not Mother.” I felt wrenched but I had a satisfied feeling, that the family would be protected by the silence of Kreacher. “Kreacher will not reveal where Master Regulus goes, and never why. Do you know why?”

“Is Master asking Kreacher to go to the .... nasty cave?” I nodded.

“Do you know why I'm asking, Kreacher?” I asked. He shook his head, and said, “Master has his own reasons.”

“Master wants to destroy the other locket. The one in the cave. We're to swap them. Tonight if you can Apparate me to the entrance.” My voice shakes a little. It's a Horcrux. Igor found out through the luck of an idiot, and he was not going to do anything about it, even though the Dark Lord terrifies him. He's such a gutless...I had to stay on track, I told myself.

And so Kreacher nodded. I grasped his hand and was wrenched through space in compression until I smelled salty air and felt around, clutching the walls of a cliff next to a fissure in the rock, my footsteps unsteady on the slippery sea-sprayed outcropping. My heart thundered in my ears. Kreacher had told me what he could remember, and I hoped to keep my sanity before the end of it all.

We edged along the cliff to the mouth of the cave, a narrow fissure, Kreacher in the terrified lead. Niches, jagged, full of edges, were good footholds. I had my wand strapped to my arm and wrist so I would not lose it, could cast spells from precarious positions. Every step was calculated. I was in no rush after all, and had no use for falling to my death before the switch took place.

 _Lumos!_ I told my wand and it obliged with a narrow strip of light. Irritated at my foolishness, I muttered _Lumos Maxima_ and the beam widened. The entrance was definitely there. Now for a part that made me more queasy than looking down onto the ocean from my narrow protection. There was water funnelling in from the ocean, into the crag or crevice or whatever. The water didn't scare me. Blood did. I don't like the sight of it. Poor quality in a Death Eater, no, former Death Eater.

We dropped to the water silently, a slight splash, Kreacher with his ears over his eyes. My clothes and Kreacher's white cloth billowed around us, sopping, and I went in the lead. I'm a better swimmer and I can spot the unusual very quickly. Quidditch thing. Our sopping garments impeded our progress and the tunnel we'd entered went on and on. The air was still and much darker now. We slipped up to a semi path and a rock wall. “This is the place, Master Regulus. If Master could hold out his arm.”

I held out my left arm. If I was going to be disgraced by it I may as well be honoured by it in the same lifetime. Which seems shorter, and shorter. My synapses are snapping in a frenzy to convince me to live.

A silver blade pierced the crook of my arm and Kreacher collected it into a floating ball, small, and I felt nauseated. He traced his finger along my arm and the wound healed. He smiled, and aimed the blood at the wall, and it parted, crumbling, revealing a large black lake.

My stomach made another turn. No, determination and cunning are required, if only to outsmart my thundering heart. I'll go on with ever faithful Kreacher.

The darkness was dense, almost impenetrable. Then I spotted with seeker's eyes a green glow, distant, perhaps at the other end of the lake. No, I thought, the centre. What traps does the Dark Lord lay for Horcruxes? We set off around the lake, Kreacher and I, Kreacher nervous but leading again. Rock encircled the lake, and we'd walk the whole way pointlessly, but Kreacher says, “Master Regulus, it is in the centre. There is a boat we must use but it is hidden.”

“You remember – never tell, and destroy the other locket.” I notice a strange shimmer not eight feet away. I aim my wand at it. “ _Revelio!_ ” I mutter. To my surprise a coppery green chain appears, and I tug it.

“That is the rope to the boat Master, so we don't disturb the Inferi.” Kreacher shudders. I feel terrible for exposing him to this place again and for what I am to do. I coil up the rope until the boat meets shore. No charm goes off and we assume it''s because he doesn't expect the likes of us. No, it's the Order of the Phoenix lot.

Ha.

Finally through the darkness we could see a tall basin, greenish, and eerie.

“It will not take Kreacher long to drink it this time,” he croaked.

“I barely managed to save you from the poison last time. I'm drinking it.”

“Master must not, Kreacher can't....”

“I'm your Master and friend. You cannot go against the House of Black. It's real and I'm serious. I didn't come here to finish off a House elf that the Dark Lord nearly murdered, my beloved House elf? You, who acted the role of housekeeper, cook, and yes I remember the nursery too.”

Kreacher shakes violently. I shouldn't put him through this but who else to help me?

“Feed me the potion even if you need to force feed me. I will die.”

“Kreacher could Apparate us both home,” Kreacher wheedled.

“Anyone human drinking the potion, has no chance of leaving here,so Igor said. This is a stronghold of powerful magic. You can sense it. The Dark Lord is very clever and without regret. But I'm not here to discuss politics, just switch. Feed me.” I mask the fact that this is suicide.

And so it began, the green potion designed to cause hallucinations, discomfort, thirst, that stole sanity – and I called for my mother Walpurga, my father Orion, for Kreacher, and constantly as if I had a pain I could express – Sirius, and his leaving, and the hole where Sirius was. I remembered being branded. I thought of the opportunity it would bring. It stole all freedom. I hated myself for playing the Dark Lord's games.

I'd kissed my Black signet ring, and felt sorrow as I drank the first crystal gobletful

.

I drank until it was gone and still delirious, I asked for water. I also gestured to Kreacher to switch the locket. There was only one source of water. The dense black mirror of a lake.

I told Kreacher to go home and never tell his Mistress Black or anyone in the family but to destroy the first locket. And I drank all of the potion and a sip of water, and was dragged by Inferi, me wincing and frightened, but not shaking as badly as my poor elf. And the last I saw of him, shaking and desperate. I was smiling and he was crying, and as I was swallowed, I heard mutter aloud, then I felt swathed, and heard the telltale crack that meant he'd Disapparated.


End file.
